Dick Advocaat wants another feather in his cap

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Football has a habit of indulging in delicious irony and tonight at the City of Manchester Stadium another such moment arrives.

Few have been able to believe that this solid, grafting Rangers side have been able to reach a Uefa Cup final, let alone that their opponents should be Zenit St Petersburg, led by the enjoyably bumptious Dick Advocaat, once a fêted Ibrox manager before a virtual lynch mob chased him out.

If tonight’s game in Manchester is less than captivating to the locals, it has provoked an almost frenzied evacuation from Scotland. Estimates of these matters are always unscientific and even scatty, but reports of 120,000 Rangers supporters charging south in planes, trains and automobiles have given quite a few Mancunians cause to cower.

Only around 17,000 of these Rangers fans will get into the stadium tonight, but the atmosphere should still be raucous.

What a dilemma it will be for Advocaat, an itinerant Dutchman who still feels unfulfilled and hankers to work in England, who has spent the past seven years since leaving Ibrox telling everyone what a Rangers fan he is. “Once you are in the Rangers family,” Advocaat said recently, sounding as solemn as a deacon, “you never leave it.” He may have to concentrate hard tonight on when to cheer and when to frown.

Actually, that is to do a disservice to this passionate coach, who was keen to point out yesterday where his priorities now lie. “I will not be emotional about the team I managed for four years,” Advocaat said. “This is a football match and I want my team to win.”

Nor do you ever put the bold Wee Dick down with a pithy aside.

When asked if his Zenit team might be cowed tonight by the much bigger, noisier Rangers support, Advocaat rubbed his famous Popeye forearms and said: “Yes, but we will have 115 million Russians supporting us . . . and the President.” Vladimir Putin, whisper it, is a big Zenit fan.

No one has ever accused this Rangers team of being a triumph of style over substance, though the constant disparaging of Walter Smith’s side has an element of calumny about it. In such players as Barry Ferguson, Kevin Thomson and Brahim Hemdani, Smith’s side have skilful ball-players at their heart, though there is plenty of brawn around its exterior. As a coach, Smith has achieved magnificently since returning to Rangers, and is presently attempting to conclude the season by landing four trophies, though his instinct so far has been to go with industry rather than art on the field. If Rangers win tonight, by whatever means, there will be no other conclusion to be offered: it will be an heroic achievement by a club who have had chronic problems both on and off the field in recent years.

Rangers have surpassed themselves in beating teams such as Werder Bremen, Sporting Lisbon and Fiorentina to land in Manchester and Smith said: “We didn’t think we’d get this far, so it has been a nice surprise. With every passing round, you could see my team growing in confidence.

“It also gives more credibility to the game in Scotland, where some people like to suggest that the standard of play is not so high. It’s good to be able to show that we still have teams who can compete like this for European trophies. It’s a big thing for any team to win the Uefa Cup and it would certainly put us in the history books.

“It’s not a thing that happens to Scottish clubs very often, and when you look back at the teams who have won this trophy, they have been of excellent [quality], so it’s a big thing for us to be here.”

This dry, calm Rangers manager has not spared himself a little selfridicule when analysing his team’s style. It takes a certain self-confidence to be able to ride along with your team’s critics, such as when Smith joked that he might change things for the final by saying: “And by that I mean . . . maybe be more defensive.”

Rangers have played a 4-1-4-1 shape in Europe, with an emphasis on defence that has caused some to cover their eyes, though Smith has hinted that tonight might be different. Nacho Novo, Rangers’ infuriatingly erratic little Spaniard, has had a spurt of form that may just persuade his manager to sacrifice caution and give the attacking Novo a berth in right midfield.

“That’s one of the things we’ll look at,” Smith said. “Novo has played very well for us recently and that’s something I have to take into account. Once you reach the final you want to do your utmost to try to win, so we’re thinking about these aspects. We might approach this a little differently.”

The notion of Zenit being intimidated by Rangers, however, may be slightly laughable. The Bayern Munich fans in the Allianz ArenA are hardly a mute bunch, yet Advocaat’s team went there and drew 1-1 in their semi-final first leg before caning the German aristocrats 4-0 in the return tie in St Petersburg. As a numbed Ottmar Hitzfeld was heard to comment: “Such things don’t happen to Bayern Munich.” It was one of many fine feats by Advocaat in his rollercoaster career.

“We played an unbelievable game against Bayern, and we can play good football,” Advocaat said. “You have to be clever in these matches.

“I know all about the build-up in Scotland, with everyone trying to make Zenit the favourites. But I know this Rangers team, it is very balanced. You cannot win cups the way Rangers have, and reach a European final like this, without being a good team.

“So Rangers will have my full respect. I know both teams well and I don’t think there will be any great difference between them.”